The invention relates to an arrangement for distributing, supplying and removing a coolant to and from a wall of a turbine engine, in particular a turbo ram jet engine, which is subjected to the flow of a hot fluid and has cooling channels which can be acted upon by the coolant and which cooling channels are arranged in the wall substantially parallel to one another.
Especially in the case of turbine dynamic jet engines, which are intended to enable operation in subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic flight, extremely high wall temperatures have to be dealt with. These high wall temperatures are caused, for example, by the high temperatures of the dynamic compressed air (1500.degree. K. and above) in the operation of dynamic jet or hypersonic flight. Extreme temperature loads and cooling requirements affect the following, inter alia: wall of variable inlet geometry; walls of flaps or slide valves which, in conjunction with central bodies, block the turbine engine when it is at a standstill on the side at which air enters, and during such blocking guide the hot dynamic compressed air into an outer annular channel of the dynamic jet engine. Furthermore, hot gas temperatures at walls, for example, of the turbine housing and an afterburner (turbine operation with/without afterburner), in particular extreme hot-gas temperatures at walls of a variable thrust nozzle which is responsible for the overall engine and thus also for hypersonic operation, have to be dealt with. Such hot-gas temperatures are notably experienced at walls of the nozzle housing and for example at adjustable or stationary wall elements which are intended to provide the necessary narrowest cross-section of the thrust nozzle in conjunction with matching nozzle convergence/divergence. In this case, the necessary coolant can be provided from the cryogenically entrained propellant (hydrogen--liquid H.sub.2) which, for example with regenerative cooling, is supplied to the winding tubes of a hot-gas thrust nozzle wall and then, made into a gas, supplied to the combustion process.
Furthermore, it is known for the purpose of cooling said walls or components to use as the cooling air, air which is taken from the engine surroundings (upstream of the compressor of the basic or turbine engine), this air being guided by way of a condenser and liquified in a heat exchange with the supplied fuel (e.g., H.sub.2) and either supplied in this state or in a vapor state for component cooling.
No comprehensible measures emerge from the prior art discussed as to the manner, preferably practical and simple from a structural point of view, in which the coolant concerned (e.g., H.sub.2 or liquified or vapor cooling air) would be supplied in a manner fitting its purpose to individual cooling channels in wall components, or would be removed again therefrom, in such a way that a comparatively low-loss guidance of coolant which is hermetically sealed from the engine environment is achieved with highly effective cooling. In respect of different local high-temperature loads, it will furthermore be necessary to have to provide variable levels of cooling effectiveness, it being necessary at the same time to keep the structural complexity of the cooling engineering as low as possible. A design which has already been proposed, with individual distributor hoses or tubes which would each have to be attached individually to an individual cooling channel (on the supply or on the removal side) appears, in the context of what has just been said, as extremely complicated structurally and susceptible to disruption due to continuous testing/stressing of individual seals.
An object of the invention which is first outlined below is to provide an arrangement in accordance with the known type mentioned at the outset, by means of which the coolant can be supplied to or removed from all the cooling channels on the supply or removal side at the same time in a manner which is optimized with respect to requirements and with a comparatively small structural complexity.
This object is achieved according to preferred embodiments of the invention by providing an arrangement wherein tube guides which are spatially separated from one another and connected to the wall, a casing of each tube guide having a longitudinal slot, each tube guide being attached on an inlet or outlet side to the respective cooling channels by way of the longitudinal slot and apertures in the wall, and a soldering or welded seam connecting the tube guides to the wall along the respective longitudinal slot.
The tube guides can be arranged at any desired position in relation to the cooling channel structure present and the supply or removal of coolant to and from the wall or wall component concerned.
Especially by varying the supply and removal openings or apertures, the supply or removal of coolant can be controlled in a comparatively simple manner; or, the necessary coolant rates and quantities or dwell times in the channels can be influenced thereby.
The invention is furthermore particularly suitable for guiding the coolant such that it flows entirely or in certain regions in counter-current.
Within the scope of the invention, it is possible for example for only every second or third successive cooling channel to be acted upon by the coolant by way of a tube guide.
By suitable choice of the material, the tube guide size (length, cross-section) and the tube guide shape, the respective thermal expansion can be adapted to operation in optimum manner.
Because of the hermetically sealed longitudinal welding or hard soldering, individual welding and sealing connection techniques for each cooling channel are dispensed with. Moreover, a simple, low-cost manufacturing process results. This is also true in respect of the possibility of bending open the casing of a tube guide to the required slot width or, in an alternative procedure, by cutting off the casing of a tube guide which is prefabricated to be approximately cylindrical, said cutting being parallel to the casing axis along a part of the periphery.
Advantageously, only a single sealing point is required for each tube guide, in particular at the point where the coolant, e.g. H.sub.2, would have to be guided away at the exit from a tube guide, that is to say at one end side, into a further pipeline which is connected for example to the burner of a turbine dynamic jet engine.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.